That was largely because the biggest jobs gains came in bars and restaurants, which added 34,000 positions. Social assistance grew by 22,000, professional and business services added 22,000 and Wall Street-related positions grew by 15,000. Health care also contributed 14,000.

Nor is this. Nor this. The American “economy” is increasingly the “service” and government sectors. Bureaucrats and the waitresses that serve them lunch. Ugh.

What does “economist” Ed Yardeni have to say about it all?

“Apparently, it hasn’t dawned on Fed officials that their ultra-easy monetary policies might have contributed greatly to the forces of global economic stagnation and deflation,” says Yardeni.

Yardeni is right, but probably not for the right reasons. There’s a reason the Fed isn’t raising rates: it will destroy the balance sheets of the world’s creditors. The Fed is not particularly concerned about its nominal mission of full employment and low inflation; it is trapped into keeping rates low because the “assets” of lenders – that is, the market value of what they are “owed” by borrowers – declines when prevailing lending interest rates rise. First and foremost, the Fed has to preserve the institution of lending.